“Around midnight, Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening. Suddenly, there was a massive earthquake, and the prison was shaken to its foundations. All the doors immediately flew open, and the chains of every prisoner fell off!” Acts 16:25-26 (NLT)

Darkness. You can’t see your hand in front of your face. Four walls surround you. You don’t even realize how hungry you are anymore because food is so scarce. The threat of your next beating is inevitable. Feelings and thoughts are all you have at this point. Prison.

Reading that may resonate with if you have ever been in prison or jail yourself. But even if you have not, we can all be honest, each of us has experienced an emotional prison or a prison-like situation, whether caused by what others have done to us or by our own choices. In Acts 16, Paul and Silas are sitting in prison for saving a slave-girl from a demonic presence. While they are sitting in prison, they start to sing hymns of praise to God. Then a miracle happens! Their chains are literally broken after an earthquake occurs at the exact moment of their praise. This is no coincidence. It is all God! The doors fling open, and the prisoners are now free of their shackles.

This is amazing! A word that stands out to me this week is “midnight.” I invite you to go outside at midnight this week. Notice the sounds and what you see. I can predict you will hear mostly silence, probably not a lot of human conversation or noises going on at that point in the night. If you keep your lights off, you will either see some moonlight or experience pitch blackness. This is symbolic to me of the midnight hour being the moment you feel most alone. The time you literally can’t see the next step to take. You need someone or something to guide you, even. I’m guessing this is how it was in prison, too. Darkness surrounding them, scary silence, not knowing what was going to happen to them next, perhaps another beating, and the weight of emotions of being in prison, not having control, would be overwhelming. Here’s the thing that makes Paul Paul: he isn’t sitting shaking with fear, rocking back and forth with anxious thoughts, or staring into the void to disassociate. Now, don’t get me wrong, any of these feelings are valid and okay to have in our midnight moments. 

The beauty in this story is that Paul shows us how we should lean on God’s faith in our next midnight hour. We should and need to praise him in those dark spaces. Know that God is the same God who shook the prison walls back then, and He is still breaking chains today! A midnight hour for us can come in the forms of loneliness from a breakup or divorce, losing a loved one, receiving a scary medical diagnosis, not knowing your next career move, financial needs, feeling far from God, and many other ways we feel isolation and hopelessness. 

When you come against your next midnight hour, know that you are absolutely NOT alone! God is with you. I urge you to talk to him, go to God in prayer, and tell Him your burdens. As you go to God in prayer, take a moment to praise Him like Paul and Silas did, too. Not only will you please God, but you will also remember the blessings God has put in all of our lives, and it will help to remember God has the best, loving plan for us all. We just have to praise him in those midnight moments while we are waiting for Him to reveal His plan. Remember, our lives are meant to be beautiful brushstrokes in God’s Kingdom. He is blending and piecing all our strokes together to create a masterpiece beyond anything we can imagine.

God, I praise you today and in all moments of my life. While it is easier to praise you in the good moments, God, help me to praise you in my midnight hours too. Thank you for being a faithful, loving God that has big plans for us all. Amen.

–💜Fuel your faith on Mondays. Grow it on Wednesdays. Live it on Fridays.